getting lost with the music when sightplaying

[bolodski]

I'm a newbie and currently doing some sightplaying on simple pieces. I seem to be able to grasp some correct notes and when I do, I would appreciate the music momentarily and I like it but it seems to make me lose focus on the next notes to play...

When I do focus on the sightplaying instead(and not getting pulled into appreciating the music), I could pretty much finish the piece but in the end I felt that I'm not satisfied.

I guess memorizing the piece instead of sightplaying it, would give me total satisfaction but my memory is not that good.


Does anybody have this similar problem?

[outin]

I think all of do or at least did have that same issue at some point. To really do justice to the music you either have to get really good in sightplaying (which takes a lot of practice) or you memorize the piece.

[hfmadopter]

I'm a newbie and currently doing some sightplaying on simple pieces. I seem to be able to grasp some correct notes and when I do, I would appreciate the music momentarily and I like it but it seems to make me lose focus on the next notes to play...

When I do focus on the sightplaying instead(and not getting pulled into appreciating the music), I could pretty much finish the piece but in the end I felt that I'm not satisfied.

I guess memorizing the piece instead of sightplaying it, would give me total satisfaction but my memory is not that good.


Does anybody have this similar problem?

Memorizing gives me complete control over the dynamics. I'm getting older now so it doesn't come so easilly anymore. But even back when I had a teacher, to her performing music also meant memorizing it. She taught me to first learn the music one slow measure at a time hands together, then memorize the music the same way. It might take months of work but when it got played for say, a recital, it was memorized. Something I never thought I could do.

She was a wonderful women and a great teacher ! I think of her methods often. You can't be lazy about it, if to do this,  you have to take the bull by the horns and put the work in, one phrase, one measure, then a page , a movement and so on. But it to me is so liberating to not to have to read the score to play a piece , once done. Plus my eyes are so whacked out I'd much rather just look at the keys and not have to find my place in the score as well !

Ah but that age thing is kicking in, I'm having to read more than before, not sure where I'm headed ultimately but I'll never stop playing piano, it hasn't gotten that bad yet ! I saw a video done when Horowitz was about 82 not so long before he died. He was asked if he was learning new music, he said no, he's gotten too old. As he sits at his piano and blasts out some Scarlatti, some Schumman etc. pieces he probably learned when he was 20 !

[werq34ac]

I think all of do or at least did have that same issue at some point. To really do justice to the music you either have to get really good in sightplaying (which takes a lot of practice) or you memorize the piece.

I disagree. No matter how good you are at sightreading, you can't form an intelligent interpretation without knowing the structure. You can play musically for sure, but forming an interpretation requires actually working the piece.

[j_menz]

I disagree. No matter how good you are at sightreading, you can't form an intelligent interpretation without knowing the structure. You can play musically for sure, but forming an interpretation requires actually working the piece.

If you mean a first read through, then I agree.  But in my experience, "working the piece" doesn't require memorising the notes.

[outin]

I disagree. No matter how good you are at sightreading, you can't form an intelligent interpretation without knowing the structure. You can play musically for sure, but forming an interpretation requires actually working the piece.

Well, how would I know really, because I can't sightread at all 

The point was that you cannot expect to do what OP seems to want to: Be able to sightread the piece in a very musical way when you are still a beginner.

[werq34ac]

If you mean a first read through, then I agree.  But in my experience, "working the piece" doesn't require memorising the notes.

It doesn't necessarily require it, but it's a heck of a lot easier.

I personally think that if you can't remember the notes, how are you supposed to remember how much to crescendo or diminuendo before you reach a certain point. How are you supposed to remember how you wanted to shape a melody or voice a chord? In order to do so, you need to KNOW that melody or chord and be able to play it without the distraction of memory issues interfering. I personally find that playing with music puts too much of my focus on the actual notes rather than the music.

[j_menz]

I personally find that playing with music puts too much of my focus on the actual notes rather than the music.

My experience is the exact opposite. I guess our brains operate differently.

I do remember the music though, just not the notes that make it up.

[outin]

I do remember the music though, just not the notes that make it up.

I'm exactly the same. I have heard almost all the pieces I ever have tried to sitghread, so it's kind of cheating anyway, right?

[j_menz]

I'm exactly the same. I have heard almost all the pieces I ever have tried to sitghread, so it's kind of cheating anyway, right?

Having heard and appreciated someone else play a piece is not the same as knowing how you want to play it and how you go about doing that. The latter is what I mean my "remembering the music".

Having heard a piece before can aid sightreading or it can hinder it, depending on the circumstances.

[outin]

Having heard and appreciated someone else play a piece is not the same as knowing how you want to play it and how you go about doing that. The latter is what I mean my "remembering the music".

Oh, you were not talking about sight reading but playing music you have learned?

I think you need to work on the piece to make it your own music and get away from what you have heard, at least for me.

[j_menz]

Oh, you were not talking about sight reading but playing music you have learned?

I think you need to work on the piece to make it your own music and get away from what you have heard, at least for me.

For clarity, and as the term is often used in a manner tha causes confusion between the two senses, sightreading can mean:

1) Picking up a piece you do not know, haven't heard, haven't seen and playing it.

2) Reading the notes off a score for a piece you have played, possibly many times, before. Often as an "alternative" to memorising it.

I am guilty of using it in each sense in this thread.

[davidjosepha]

I had only ever used and heard sightreading to mean the first definition until I started going to PS. Needless to say, I was very confused about how j_menz was able to sightread immensely difficult pieces.

[outin]

I had only ever used and heard sightreading to mean the first definition until I started going to PS. Needless to say, I was very confused about how j_menz was able to sightread immensely difficult pieces.

What would you call this then:

You have learned to play the piece pretty well, you don't need to read the notes from the score, but you still need it in front of you to be able to play, because certain spots/marks/finerings on the score somehow initiate the memory. And you have to follow the score because otherwise you don't find these spots when you need them. So you look at the score all the time, but only read very little from it?

I have a couple of pieces that are like this and I find it strange because I have played them much longer than some pieces I have memorized completely (without much conscious effort) a long time ago. Yet I cannot get past the first bars without the score.

[j_menz]

What would you call this then:

You have learned to play the piece pretty well, you don't need to read the notes from the score, but you still need it in front of you to be able to play, because certain spots/marks/finerings on the score somehow initiate the memory. And you have to follow the score because otherwise you don't find these spots when you need them. So you look at the score all the time, but only read very little from it?

I have a couple of pieces that are like this and I find it strange because I have played them much longer than some pieces I have memorized completely (without much conscious effort) a long time ago. Yet I cannot get past the first bars without the score.

Some sort of halfway house between reading and memorising? Don't really know, I read it every time.

[outin]

Crutch reading? 

[j_menz]

Crutch reading? 

LOL, works for me. But keep your spellchecker on high or you risk arrest. 

[outin]

LOL, works for me. But keep your spellchecker on high or you risk arrest. 

 
Took me a while though, since I'm not English speaking...

[bolodski]

Thanks for the input folks!